Insight into the significant events of human history, following a day-to-day analysis of the Gregorian calendar.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

30th of October

Today is the 303rd day of the year, with only 62 days remaining.

1831 - In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner, is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in U.S. history.

1864 - Helena, Montana is founded, after four prospectors discover gold at the Last Chance Gulch.

1922 - Benito Mussolini is made the Prime Minister of Italy.

1938 - Orson Welles, broadcasts his radio play of The War of the Worlds, causing anxiety in some of the audience.

1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt, approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.

1942 - Lt. Tony Fasson, Able Seaman Colin Grazier, and canteen assistant Tommy Brown, from the HMS Petard board the U-559, retrieving material which would lead to the decryption of the German Enigma code.

1945 - Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs, signs a contract for the Brooklyn Dodgers, to break the baseball color barrier.

1965 - Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack of wave after wave of Viet Cong forces. They kill 56 guerillas and among the dead, is a sketch of Marine positions, found on the body of a 13-year-old boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.

1974 - The Rumble in the Jungle boxing match, between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, takes place in Kinshasa, Zaire.

1987 - In Japan, Nintendo releases the first 16-bit home entertainment system, the TurboGrafix-16, known as a PC Engine.